Improvement in machines for combing cotton



V UNITED STATEs PATENT OFFICE.

IRA DIMOGK, OF FLORENCB, MASSACHUSETTS.

IMPROVEMENT IN MACHINES FOR COMBING COTTON, 80C.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 49,865, dated September 12, 1865.

lb all whom it may concern:

Beit known that I, IRA DiMooK, of Florence, in the county oi' Hampshire and State ot' Massachusetts, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Machinery for Combing Cotton and other Fibrous Materials; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description ot` the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming part ot' this specification, in which- Figure l is a transverse vertical section of a machine with myimprovements. Fig. 2 is an elevation ot' that end ofthe machine on which the driving-pulleys are placed. Fig. 3 is an elevation of the opposite end ot' the machine. Fig. 4 is a longitudinal elevation of that side ot' the lnachine opposite to the side at which the material which is to be combed is fed in.

Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in the several figures.

The invention relates to combing-machines in which the fibers are presented to the combs to be combed, iirst toward one and afterward to the other end, by means of nippers with opening and closing jaws attached to intermittently-rotating cylinders.

It consists, first, in an improved arrangement of the parts of such a machine whereby the space which it occupies is very considerably reduced, the parts are made easily accessible either from the front or back of the machine, and provision is aft'orded for arranging the parts in aframe ot' any numberof heads so that the same shafts, gearing, cams, and connections may operate several heads instead of only one head, and the machine is thereby so simplified that the cost of construction is greatly reduced.

It consists, secondly, in applying` friction to counteract the momentum ofthe intermittently-rotating nipper-cylinders during the latter part of each movement, thereby enabling the machine to be run at a higher speed. l

lt consists,thirdly, in so arranging and gearing a rotary series of combs of diii'erent degrees ot' neness in relation with a rotating nippercylinder that the bers will be acted upon iirst by a coarse-toothed comb and afterward successively by combs of finer teeth.

1t consists, fourthly, in applying a comb so arranged in connection with the feed-rollers and in relation to each nipper-cylinder that` when the nippers have seized the ends of the fleece fed to them the teeth of such comb may be caused to pass through the ieece near the nippers as they are detached from the fleece, the said comb serving to keep back the short bers and dirt which might but for this comb be carried away on the tail end of the tutt dedetached.

lo enable others skilled in the art to malte and use my invention, I will proceed to describe its construction and operation.

The framing ot' the machine is composed of anumber of upright standards,A A, connected by longitudinal beams or stretchers B B. rlhe number ofl these standards will be one more than the number of combing-heads in the machine, the several working parts of each head being arranged between two standards. The machine which we have illustrated has two heads and three standards.

a is the first-motion or driving shaft, extending the whole length of the machine and having attached to it the cylindrical brushewn for removing the noil from the combing-cylinders and delivering it to the noil-doffers c. Motion is conveyed from the shaft a to the two combing-shafts b by a spur-wheel, a3, on Y the former, which gears with a spur-wheel, b', Fig. 3, upon one ofthe combing-shafts b.

rlhe brush-shaft a. may be arranged in vertically-adjustable brackets, so that by altering the diameter ot' the spuiwheels a3 and b the brushes c2 may be adjusted to the combingcylinders b2 as they wear, and the noil-doii'ers can be also readily adjusted to the cylindrical brushes a2.

The noil-doffers o are of ordinary construction, covered with card-teeth, and the noil is doft'ed by a comb, (not shown,) the noil from each dott'er being collected and delivered-by rollers in the form ot' a sliver in the usual manner. The shaft of the noilfdolers receives motion from the shaftfof the dot't'ers f for the combed material by means of an endless belt and a pulley (not shown) on the end of each shaft.

The two combing-cylinders b2 are geared together by means of an intermediate spurwheel, b3, Fig. 2, which gears with a spur-wheel, b4, on each of the combing-shafts b, and it is by means of a crank-pin, b5, Figs. 2 and 4, on one of these wheels that the intermittent motion is given to the nipper-cylinders, so that the combing-shaft makes one revolution for each movement of the nipper-cylinders, the combs fv t (of which there are several on each cylinder) being of different degrees of neness and being so arranged that the coarsest comb will first act upon the tuft, then those which are finer in regular succession, according to their fineness.

The combs and combing-cylinder may be'constructed in the usual manner, the comb-cylinders b2 being made in two halves, so as to be screwed together, and thus fixed upon the combing-shaft or removed therefrom without disturbing it.

The oscillating-shafts d ot' the first nippercylinders, d', which receive the tuft from the fleece, are represented as placed in fixed bearings in the standards. lhe oscillating-shaft d* ofthe second nipper-cylinder, dft, is in similar hearings. The shaft of the second nippercylinder may, however, begarranged in bearings in adjustable arms to allow the said cyl- 'inder d* to be readily adjusted to allow the proper space between the nipper-cylinders to suit the length ofthe staple to be combed, the twosets of nipper-cylinders being kept paral- Vlel to each other.

f ablejaw d5 may have a groove formed in it to receive a piece of india-rubber or other elastic material, which is cemented or otherwise secured to the jaw, and to this india-rubber therel may be secured, by cement or other means, a.

facing of leather, which will come in contact with the tuft when placed between the jaws,`

the elastic material being a provision against little inequalities in the tuft.

The jaws of each cylinder are actuated by a cam, 17, secured upon each nipper-cylinder shalt d, this cam acting upon tail-.pieces da, projecting from about the center ot' each movable Dipper-jaw d5. The cams di act upon the movable jaws of the nipper-eylinders during the back movement. These cams are so shaped and arranged that at the completion of amovement in the Dipper-cylinders those jaws of the rst Dipper-cylinder opposite the iieece will be wide open and those jaws having the two tufts last detached will be closed and the fourth jaw slightly open; but in the second nippercylinder only those jaws will be open opposite the point where the transfer takes place from one nipper-cylindcr to the other. All the other jaws will be shut, as shown in Fig. 1. When the cams have nished their movements all the jaws in both nipper-cylinders that were Wide open will be shut, the jaws of the first cylinder delivering the tuft to the second cylinder will be slightly opened,and thejaws next to receive the. tuft from the tleece will be wholly opened, and the jaws delivering the tuft to the doier will be wholly opened.

The nipper-cylinder shafts d d* receiveisfcillatory motion from the crank-pin b5 in the wheel on the end of one of thecombing-shafts, as before mentioned, by means of a connectingrod, 11G, Figs. 2 and 4, jointed with an arm, d, secured upon the shaft d of the first nipprf; cylinders, motion being communicated from' that shaft to the shaft dit of the second cylinders by means of an arm, e, on the rstand arod, c', connecting the said arm with a similar arm', cit, on the second.

Upon each ot' the nipper-cylinder shafts d dit an arm, ci", is secured for each nippercylinder, and to each of such arms a click or pawl, c3, is jointed, which works upon the edge ofits nipper-cylinder d or dit, so as to enter into one of the four ratchet-notches in each nippercylinder at each oscillation, and thus propel each nipper-cylinder one-fourth of a revolution for each oscillation of the shafts d dit.

The ratchet-notches, it will be understood, must correspond with the number ofnippers in a cylinder. I

A retaining-pawl, e, centered on a stud in the framing is employed for each Dipper-cylinder to prevent any return movement when the back oscillation of the shafts d takes place. Y

To retard and prevent the nipper-cylinders d' from overrunning or moving too far the pawls e3,jointed on the arms e2, for propelling the nipper-cylinders may be made to tit and enter square notches-such as are shown in the cylinder d in Fig. 2-in the edges of the several nipper-cylinders, and at the end of each movement each pawl may be lifted out ot' its notch by a nger on a rotating shaft arranged for the purpose, there being one such finger for each pawl and one such rotating shaft for each nippcr-cylinder shaft.

When pawls of the common kindsuch as are indicated by the letters c3 e3 in Fig. l-are used in connection with ratchet-shaped teeth on the nipper-cylinders, i t is necessary, in order to prevent the momentum ofthe said cylinders from carrying them beyond the proper positions to which they are brought by the pawls, that some means of counteracting this momentum at the ends of the movement should be applied to the said cylinders; and when the square-toothed pawls hereinabove mentioned are used, operating in square notches in the cylinders,although the pawls themselves would stop the cylinders, some means of overcoming and neutralizing the momentum acquired by the said cylinders is necessary to prevent them from being stopped with a shock to the machinery in running at a high speed. For this purpose 1 apply a friction -spring, e8, Figs. 2 and 4, secured to the framing near one end of each nipper-cylinder, the free end of such spring being arranged to come in contact with a projection, w, upon each nippercylinder at the end of cach movement of such cylinder, there being one projection, w, on each nippercylinder for each pair of nippers in the cylint er.

The projections a: a; represented consist of the heads ofthe pins d6, which constitute the pivots upon which the movablejaws ofthe nippers work.

f. rPhe do'ers f for combedmaterial are placed on. a shaft, f, above the second nippercylinder, and above these doli'ers may be placed a shaft having rotary cylindrical brushes, which serve to mix the fibers in the card-surface of the said doffers. The combed material is stripped from each doffer by a pair of rollers, f2, and the eece withdrawn from each doffer is delivered n the form of a sliver by another pair of rollers, (not shown,) these parts being ot' ordinary construction.

The laps of fibrous material It for each head rest on a pair of rollers, It', and these rollers are free to rotate on the shafts h2 h3. The laprollers h are driven by any suitable arrange ment of gearing.

The feedvrollers l3 are mounted in bearings.

in an oscillating` frame, l, which is suspended from the shaft h2 of one of thelap-rollers. rfhis frame receives an oscillating motion from a cam, Z2, upon the end of one of the combingshafts b, which cam acts upon a stud orantifriction roll on the frame l. The cam is constructed so that when the nippers have closed upon the end of the iieece it will cause the feedrollers to move back and detach that portion ofthe lieece held by the nippers before the nipper-cylinders begin to move, and then to move forward again to insert the end of the eece within the open nippers after the movement of the nipper-cylinder has been completed.

The feed-rollersl3 have the necessary rotary motion imparted to them by any suitable means, such motion being intermittent and only taking place as thev frame l advances toward the first nipper-cylinder d'.

The detachingeombs k2, which constitute the fourth part of myinvention, are mounted on arms 7e3 fixed upon a rock-shaft, k, extending from end to end 01"' the feed-roller frame and havingits bearings thereon. This rock-shaftre ceives movements from th'e cam 7c', Figs. 2 and 4, which acts upon a stud or roller carried on a stud in the end of an arm, 705, secured upon the end ofthe shaft 7a4.

The cam 7c for actuating the detachingcombs is so constructed as to cause the insertion of the combs in the ieece when the nippers have pinched the end of it, and to remain in the eece during the back movement of the feed-rollers Z3, and then lift out ready to be again inserted. The said cam 7c is secured to a spur-wheel, 7c, Fig. 4, which turns on the laproller shaft h2, and which derives rotary motion from the spur-wheel b4 on the front combshaft, b, through a spur-\vheel,g, ou the front Dipper-cylinder shaft and a stud-gear, g2, attached to the framing.

The operation of the machine is as follows: The material from the lap It descends from the outside lap-roller to the feed-rollers Z3, as shown in red color in Fig. 1. It protrudes from the feed-rollers in advance of the detaching-combs k2. 1f the nipper-cylinders d Z'it are supposed to have just completed a movement the nipper-jaws of the rst nipper-cylinder opposite the ends of the fleece are then open, and the protruding ends of the fleece having just arrived close to the jaws are immediately pushed within the jaws, which are in the act of closing. When the jaws have pinched the ends of the lieece the detachingcomb enters the material and the feed-rollers begin to withdraw, and thus detach the lap, leaving a tuft Within the jaws by the time the nipper-cylinders begin to move. These movements' are repeated for each movement of the nipper-cylinders. \Vhen the tufts are detached from the fleece the rst movement of the nipper-cylinders brings those tufts detached opposite the rst combing-drum,l

b2, so that when the nipper-cylinders are stationary the coarse-pitched comb tirst begins to enter and then the liner-pitched combs in succession. The next movement of the lirst nipper-cylinder brin gs the combed tuftopposite the jaws of the second nipper-cylinder, when the transfer takes place, the opposite end of tuft now being free, and by the tirst movement of the second nipper-cylinder after the transfer the tufts are brought opposite the second combing-cylinder, and in two more movements of the nipper-cylinders the tufts are delivered to the dofferf for combed material. The rotary cylindrical brush hereinbefore mentioned as being arranged above the said doft'er acts, as the doffer rotates, to mix the bers together before they are stripped `from the doffer by the rollers f2, and gatheredtogether and delivered in the form ot' a sliver. The slivers from each head may be collected together to form one united sliver at the end of the machine in the usual manner, if required. The noil extracted by the combing-cylinders is removed by the cylindrical brush a2 and delivered to the/noildoffer c, from which it is stripped and carried away in the usual manner.

fhat I claim as my invention7 and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. The arrangement of the two nipper-cylinders d d, the doffer f for the combed ber, the two comb-cylinders d2 d2, the rotary brush a2, and noil-dotfer c, substantially as herein described, to operate as set forth.

2. Applying friction to counteract the mo mentum ofthe nipper-cylinders during the latter part of each movement, substantially as and for the purpose herein specified.

3. So arranging a rotary series of combs ot' different degrees of neness in relation to a nipper-cylinder that the bers will be acted cylinder of a combing-machine, substantially upon rst by a coarse-toothed comb and afas herein described, and operating as herein terward successively by combs each having set forth.

teeth finer than its predecessor,substantially IRA DIMOOK. as herein specified, Vitnessos:

4. The comb k2, applied in connection with HENRY T. BROWN, the feed-rollers and in relation to the nipper- J. W. GOOMBS. 

